The Deflowering of Eva van End

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All Rise...

If you're looking for Judge Jason Panella, he's squirming in that corner over there.

The Charge

He Was Like A Dream…Too Good To Be True

Opening Statement

Have you ever wished Wes Anderson's movies were about a million times more
caustic?

Facts of the Case

You could call the van End family dysfunctional, sure, but they seem like any
other Dutch family. The father, Evert (Ton Kas, Plan C), works a
thankless job at a sausage factory. The mother, Etty (Jacquelin Blom, Black
Book), is in a constant battle to get her pothead son Manuel to grow up.
Oldest child Erwin has a good job and is getting ready to get married. Then
there's Eva (newcomer Vivian Dierickx), the youngest—she'd rather watch
documentaries on whales or listen to her favorite panflutists than interact with
other people.

Enter Veit (Rafael Gareisen, The Book
Thief) , a German exchange student who stays with the van Ends for two
weeks. Veit is a near-perfect human being, so much so that the van Ends are made
very much aware of their shortcomings. The result isn't pretty.

The Evidence

Comparing first-time director Michiel ten Horn's The Deflowering of Eva
van End to the work of Wes Anderson or Todd Solondz is almost unavoidable.
Ten Horn has explicitly stated the influence these two American directors have
had on him, and it's there on the screen: The Deflowering of Eva van End
is a biting look at the insecurities of a middle-class family that looks and
feels like an Anderson movie. Thankfully, it's not wholly derivative; sadly, its
approach is squirm-worthy enough to potentially alienate a lot of viewers.

Veit is a god-like character—he wears all white, is unfailingly
polite, and spends his time donating money to orphans in Africa and learning to
improve the world around him. The van End family have their share of problems,
as the film shows, and Veit's tenure in their home serves as a catalyst for
their transformation. For instance, after witnessing an angelic Veit practicing
meditation, Etty looks to Eastern techniques to relieve her constant state of
anxiety. Whether the family changes for better or worse is debatable (especially
the changes that happen to Eva), and ten Horn gives the movie room enough to at
least put more than one interpretation out there.

What's frustrating about The Deflowering of Eva van End, is that
while ten Horn isn't overly cruel to his characters, they still never feel like
real people. Eva in particular comes off like a collection of quirky Internet
memes passing as a human being. The cast plays their parts well enough that this
disconnect isn't always evident, but it's still there.

But maybe that's good? A couple of the plot twists might not have been as
palatable if the characters were believable. The humor is pitch black in spots,
and while the movie is genuinely funny, some scenes are just amazingly
uncomfortable to sit through. Of course, your mileage may vary on this kind of
thing. (And a mild warning: if you get upset over violence to small animals, you
might want to avoid this movie.)

Still, The Deflowering of Eva van End is impressive in many ways. Ten
Horn is skilled behind the camera, and his previous work as an animator
manifests in how many of the scenes look like elaborate panels of an oddball
comic strip or storyboard (and, when combined with this film's twee soundtrack,
gives an overt nod to Anderson's work). It's at times a funny and humane film,
but one tempered by a current of bitterness that's a little off-putting.

Film Movement's release of The Deflowering of Eva van End is pretty
standard in the audio and visual department: a 1.77:1 non-anamorphic widescreen
presentation and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround Dutch track do what they have to do.
The extras: two short films by ten Horn (Basta, 13 minutes; Arie,
10 minutes) and a short, totally insane interview with the director.

Closing Statement

The Deflowering of Eva van End is a well-made and affecting look at a
family altered by their encounter with perfection. But by treating its
characters as collections of traits instead of people, it loses something in the
process, especially when the tone gets pitch black.